[Plugin] ClothWorks v1.7.7 - 2 May 2022

[Anton_S]

ClothWorks
ClothWorks is a cloth simulator for SketchUp for draping cloth and wires over components of any shape and size and also for simulating curtains and flags.

Workflow functionalities include:

• Quadrilateral, Equilateral, and Adaptive grids for converting face or a set of faces within a group/component into a grid of faces, with a desired grid padding. Additional edge purging options allow for removing the generated grid. Grid options are for manipulating cloth.
• Split Edges for dividing an edge or a set of edges within a group/component into segments, with a desired edge padding. Weld Edges allows for merging the split edges. Edge options are for manipulating wires.
• Loop Subdivision and Laplacian Smoothing options for subdividing and smoothing the resulting, simulated cloth or wires, while preserving texture UVQ coordinates.
• Drape and Undrape for renewing and resetting (respectively) cloth, wire, and pin transformations. Toggling drapery is, particularly, useful for when changing the texture of the cloth.
• Record and Export for recording simulation and exporting the animation into a sequence of images, SKP files, OBJ files, and various other formats. A third-party software, such as MakeAVI, can be used to combine a sequence of exported images into a video file.

To get started, refer to and download the ClothWorks Manual. To install ClothWorks, you can refer to the ClothWorks Installation Guide.

You can also check out the detailed tutorials below:

Video

Video

Video

Video

Video

Video

Video

Requirements

• Window 7 or later / Mac OS X 10.8+
• SketchUp 2016 or later
• SketchUcationTools v4.0.0+, for licensing and unlocking features

Installation Instructions
ClothWorks can be installed via SketchUcationTools extension or manually, from ExtensionStore.

Refer to the following steps for installing manually:

1. Download ams_ClothWorks_vX.Y.Z.rbz.
2. Navigate to your plugins folder (see Extension Folder Location section for details).
3. Extract ams_ClothWorks_vX.Y.Z.rbz and copy the content into the plugins folder, so that the plugins folder contains ams_ClothWorks folder and ams_ClothWorks.rb file:
   …\SketchUp\Plugins\
   
   ams_ClothWorks
   ams_ClothWorks.rb

Uninstallation Instructions
Refer to the steps below to uninstall the extension:

1. Close SketchUp.
2. Navigate to your plugins folder (see Extension Folder Location section for details).
3. Delete ams_ClothWorks folder and ams_ClothWorks.rb file.

Extension Folder Location
On Windows, the plugins folder is located at, either:

%appdata%\SketchUp\SketchUp 20##\SketchUp\Plugins

On Mac OS X, the plugins folder is located at:

~/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 20##/SketchUp/Plugins

Licensing
Licensing unlocks four features:

1. Loop Subdivision – smoothens cloth by increasing resolution, meanwhile preserving texture coordinates
2. Laplacian Smoothing – smoothens cloth by balancing vertices
3. Movable Pins – allows transforming pinned cloth while in simulation
4. Adaptive Grid – generates grids for complex faces and 3d geometry

ClothWorks licensing depends on SketchUcationTools, version 3.1.5 or later. The latest version of the extension must be installed for licensing to work properly!

With SketchUcationTools (v3.1.5+) installed, a licence file can be obtained and/or activated by accessing:
(Menu) Extensions → ClothWorks → License…

Within the licensing dialog:

1. Click on the Obtain Licence button to purchase your licence. This will navigate you to SketchUcation PayPal purchasing page. Ensure to specify your email address correctly, so that the purchased licence file is shipped to the correct address.
2. Upon receiving your licence, download the file and save it to your computer.
3. To activate your licence, click on the Validate Licence button and select your purchased licence file. This will unlock all the features.

At an any given time, a purchased licence can be activated on up to three devices.

For detailed instructions on activating your licence, please refer to ClothWorks License Guide.

If you purchased a ClothWorks license and have not received an email with your license file, within the next 10 minutes, or experience any other licensing problems, please contact clothworks@sketchucation.com. Include your SketchUcation username in the email.

If you are looking to obtain a new copy of your license file purchased earlier, please also send an email to clothworks@sketchucation.com and include your SketchUcation username in the description.

Important Notes:
Verify that simulation works, and does not crash, prior to purchasing a licence.

In case your license seat count become full, please refer to Known Issue section, in ClothWorks License Guide on resetting your license.

Known Issues and Limitations

• Avoid using the undo command after a simulation. Each frame of simulation is wrapped in its own operation and clutters the undo stack. Instead, to undo cloth layout, make use of the Toggle Draped option, accessible from the ClothWorks toolbar or menu.
• Self-collision is not perfect and may allow for self-overlaps. In case self-overlaps occur, applying smoothing options post simulation, especially Laplacian smoothing, can eliminate overlaps.
• Only top level groups/components are assignable a cloth, a collider, or a pin type. That, all nested groups/components of a collider and a pin are included in simulation.

Useful Tops

• Prior to starting simulation, ensure that Outliner and Components inspectors are closed or collapsed. When these dialogs are open or expanded, there tends to be an extreme lag.
• If self-collision is turned on, cloth thickness must not be greater than cloth grid spacing. If thickness is greater than grid spacing, cloth geometry will clutter out due to overlaps with neighboring particles.
• Increasing the update timestep, say from 1/420 to 1/180, makes cloth weaker. If possible, avoid increasing the update timestep. On the counter-note, decreasing the update timestep, say from 1/420 to 1/1200, makes cloth significantly stiffer.
• Overlaps with colliding opponents may also occur. To prevent overlaps when draping over a collider, reduce gravity, increase viscosity, and/or increase thickness of the collider. To prevent overlaps with other cloth objects, increasing thickness of either to minimize the occurrence.
• After performing simulation and finalizing the draping, that is subdividing and texturing, you can reduce file size by clearing drape history:
  (Menu) Extensions → ClothWorks → Clear Draped and Purge

[Box]

I guess I'm too quick, it's not showing up in sketchucation tools.
Ok, you can download it manually from the Extension store but not from within Sketchup.

[fredo6]

Anton,

I watched the videos...

Simply stunning, really...!

Congratulation for this masterpiece of work.

Fredo

[jiminy-billy-bob]

\o/

[Box]

After just a few minutes with it, Brilliant, bloody brilliant.

[Rich O Brien]

After just a few minutes with it, Brilliant, bloody brilliant.

Pretty amazing alright! I love the smoothing and subdivision. You can work quite easily with low-medium poly cloths and then up the resolution.

[juju]

Installation Instructions
ClothWorks can be installed via SketchUcationTools extension or manually, from ExtensionStore.

Refer to the steps below for installing manually:

1. Download ams_ClothWorks_vX.Y.Z.rbz.
2. Navigate to your plugins folder (see Extension Folder Location section for details).
3. Extract ams_ClothWorks_vX.Y.Z.rbz and copy the content into the plugins folder, so that the plugins folder contains ams_ClothWorks folder and ams_ClothWorks.rb file:
   …\SketchUp\Plugins\
   
   ams_ClothWorks
   ams_ClothWorks.rb

Uninstallation Instructions
Refer to the steps below to uninstall the extension:

1. Close SketchUp.
2. Navigate to your plugins folder (see Extension Folder Location section for details).
3. Delete ams_ClothWorks folder and ams_ClothWorks.rb file.

Extension Folder Location
On Windows, the plugins folder is located at, either:

• %appdata%\SketchUp\SketchUp 20##\SketchUp\Plugins
• %programdata%\SketchUp\SketchUp 20##\SketchUp\Plugins

On Mac OS X, the plugins folder is located at:

> Library > Application Support > SketchUp 20## > SketchUp > Plugins

Do the regular extension installation/uninstallation functions of SU2018pro not work, ie. via Extension Manager?

[Rich O Brien]

Do the regular extension installation/uninstallation functions of SU2018pro not work, ie. via Extension Manager?

Works fine.

[Anton_S]

Juju, it's not yet at official ExtensionManager, but will be there if soon.

[kenancakir]

Thank you, you did a great job.. I installed it on sketchup 2017 and works fine..

[Dave R]

Oh boy! This is cool!

[Rich O Brien]

Oh boy! This is cool!

Think of all your lovely tables covered with a dirty table cloth

[Dave R]

Oh boy! This is cool!

Think of all your lovely tables covered with a dirty table cloth

Indeed! This was my first attempt. Rendering in KT now.

1930s Streamline.png

[pilou]

Bravo to Anton!

[nlipovac]

Anton, you deliver it as promised! It looks great.
I was wondering will v2 comes with something like force modifier in Blender,
for pillows and similar?

[boofredlay]

Bravo!

[Frederik]

Congratulation! This sure is a great plugin...!

I went ahead an purchased a license...
Not primary because I believe I have that much use of this plugin, but because I also want to support plugin developers...

15,00 USD is a a bargain for such a great plugin, however, I ended up paying 23,37 USD for this plugin...?!? Why...???

The VAT in Denmark is 25%, but that should give a final price of 18,75 USD...
Why should I pay the remaining 4,62 USD...???

[boofredlay]

I am seeing the same thing.

Click Obtain License and see $15 for the plugin.
Click Buy This and see $19 for the plugin.
Then get $23.37 which is $19 plus 23% sales tax (Ireland).

[Rich O Brien]

It is showing the incorrect price on the buy page. Fixing now.

It is $19 if you are Premium not $15. Sorry about that.

VAT is applied if your PayPal account is not business verified. This is EU law to apply tax.

[boofredlay]

Thanks Rich.

[Anton_S]

Thank you all for comments and support! I greatly appreciate it. More tutorials are to come soon.

I was wondering will v2 comes with something like force modifier in Blender, for pillows and similar?

Version 2 will include these. But in between, the plan is to:

1. Improve cloth collision algorithm, so that cloth doesn't overlap itself.
2. Add multithreading - we must use most of the processors resources.

[solo]

Awesome.

Just purchased, looking forward to multi-thread support.

[db11]

Congrats Anton on a very impressive and useful plug-in. Look forward to trying it out.

[boofredlay]

Ever make a fort as a kid?
Loving this.

[Dave R]

Nice work Eric.

[faust07]

Hi, Anton. Impressive result. Congratulations and an awesome bow. Magic in SketchUp... I can only imagine the complexity of the internal calculations and processes. Besides the fantastically realistic falling and folding fabrics also perfect treatment of the textures. The dream would be to have such flexible surfaces also in MSPhysics...

[Hieru]

Thank you all for comments and support! I greatly appreciate it. More tutorials are to come soon.

I was wondering will v2 comes with something like force modifier in Blender, for pillows and similar?

Version 2 will include these. But in between, the plan is to:

1. Improve cloth collision algorithm, so that cloth doesn't overlap itself.
2. Add multithreading - we must use most of the processors resources.

That's great news and the plugin is looking awesome as-is!

For pillows I was thinking of a workaround technique using a similar approach to the clothing example that was shared a while back. Is there a clothing tutorial in the pipeline?

[Pixero]

Bought it. Now off to try it out....

Edit: Wohooo! It's soo fun.
How will I ever get any work done anymore.

[Box]

Hi, Anton. Impressive result.The dream would be to have such flexible surfaces also in MSPhysics...

My thoughts exactly, I look forward to the day when I can drop my balls into soft leather.
Here's a quick example of combining MSPhysics with Clothworks and a bit of SUbD hiding underneath.

[Rich O Brien]

I look forward to the day when I can drop my balls into soft leather.

You should write romantic novels